"Why? What difference would it have made?" Rod frowned, failing to understand the other's excitement. "Sure, we've progressed from the older methods, in that we now have pretty complete data for all present job descriptions. And we can synthesize data for a new job, if it's not too different. But there isn't any information on the kind of person needed in a new world. What the devil are you getting so upset about?"

The historian threw himself into a chair and glared at Rod. "If you couldn't find the kind of people you needed to test, you could have asked a historian if he knew anything about them!"

Rod shook his head puzzledly. "Subjective data, such as that--"

"Don't bring subjectivity into this, damn it! We get enough of that from physical scientists." Jaimie held himself in the chair, almost shaking with the intensity of his feeling. "Look, Rod, you know I want to see the project succeed. And you admit that you haven't got an answer. Well,

Reviews

The third attempt to establish a colony on Venus has failed as all the colonists give up to return home. The personnel selection folks are at wits end, and the military is threatening to take over the process when the project's historian steps in.

The answer is obvious. Everyone in the story is male. Everything takes place on Earth. There's nothing special about the story that will cause you to remember it in a week. It is short.

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